But what if I *am* part of the story

I'm looking for opinion on whether I've found the right balance with the story below. In a perfect world, I'd assign someone else to chase this for a while, but that ain't gonna happen here.

To me, the fact that they booted me was a major part of this story...

We go to press in six hours....thoughts?

The Six Nations Rebels annual general meeting was closed to the media after general manager Wayne â€œGuyâ€ Lickers demanded that reporters present leave.
â€œI won’t say anything as long as (the media) is here,â€ Lickers said.
After a consensus was taken by Rebels president Ellis Hill, the media was asked leave.
Earlier, Ellis apologized to Lickers for an article that appeared in last week’s (paper).
In that article, Ellis alleged that Lickers was not accounting for the money that he spent.
However, he stopped just short of accusing him of wrong doing.
"It's not adding up," Hill said in the article, adding that he formally asked for Lickers to provide bank records in July.
"If he isn't hiding anything then there is no reason why he shouldn't step up," Hill said at the time.
Ellis did not deny making the statements, but rather suggested that his conversation with the reporter was â€œoff the record.â€
â€œI thought (the reporter) was only going to talk about the (fund raiser) golf tournament,â€ he said. â€œI didn’t intend for the community to hear.â€
The Rebels are a community owned team.
In a letter dated Sept. 19, and sent to Lickers, Ellis expressed similar sentiments as were reported in the newspaper article.
In that letter he demanded that Lickers produce a financial statement of all expenditures from 2006 and 2007.
He also called on Lickers to provide bank statements for the two years he has been general manager.
â€œYour challenge is from the community of concerned people, based on justifiable concern and cause,â€ Ellis wrote in the letter.
He went on to inform Lickers that he would be immediately fired as general manager if he failed to attend the general meeting.
Lickers had missed a previous meeting when he was in the United States attending a funeral.
The (paper) has learned that Lickers failed to provide the requested documentation at the meeting.
However, he assured those present that he had made all required payments and that there was about $5,500 in the Rebels bank account.
According to Ontario Lacrosse Association junior B commissioner Dave Vernon, Lickers was scheduled to make a payment to the league on Sept. 21. The money was to cover costs associated with the team’s trip to the Canadian championships in B.C. in August.
Vernon did not immediately return phone calls to confirm whether that payment had been made. However, he indicated earlier that he has never experienced difficulty in receiving money from Lickers.
"Whenever I've asked him to do something, he has," Vernon said last week.

Exactly what I was thinking. Go with Hill. Why is he first-named sometimes?

Also, in the third graf, 'was asked TO leave.' Dropped word.

Overall though...who gives a shit? I think if you lose the first three grafs, you've got what people care about. Who cares that you weren't there? You have the letter, his answer, and the rest. The fact you were asked to leave is a tangent that doesn't matter to the story.

Exactly what I was thinking. Go with Hill. Why is he first-named sometimes?

Also, in the third graf, 'was asked TO leave.' Dropped word.

Overall though...who gives a shit? I think if you lose the first three grafs, you've got what people care about. Who cares that you weren't there? You have the letter, his answer, and the rest. The fact you were asked to leave is a tangent that doesn't matter to the story.

Click to expand...

Ellis, Hill is a typo. Thanks.

That a community owned team closed its meeting to the only person there representing the community isn't relevant?

The meeting was rescheduled to address the issues brought up in the letter, which was already reported. Now, Lickers is refusing to talk about the issues publicly.

As I said, I want to ensure that I'm finding the right balance, but you can't report when you are prohibited from doing so. Am I alone in thinking that is relevant to the community?

Maybe you should consider taking yourself out of the news story --- report that the meeting was closed because Lickers and Hill had these issues to discuss, then go into the background of the story -- and come back with a column/commentary on why it's wrong for a community-owned team to close a meeting and shut out the media (you).
If it's community-owned, you need to get some of the other people who are actively involved to comment on this sutuation as well.

Maybe you should consider taking yourself out of the news story --- report that the meeting was closed because Lickers and Hill had these issues to discuss, then go into the background of the story -- and come back with a column/commentary on why it's wrong for a community-owned team to close a meeting and shut out the media (you).
If it's community-owned, you need to get some of the other people who are actively involved to comment on this sutuation as well.